From the title, I'll admit I had certain expectations. I was totally excited for a silly story about an overbearing, but loving mother and her son who's trying to be the bad guy. Maybe there would be wacky hijinks and clever parodies and subversions.

Instead, this novel was one of a mother, trying to navigate an unfamiliar new world, looking for her son. It was a story of mental issues, self-blame, found families, and perhaps even about the evil that lurks within good people.

I was disappointed that the story wasn't what I was hoping for, but that's more on me and not the story.

I found this novel to be a decently enjoyable read. The protagonist, Ariana, is easy to like due to her kind nature and motherly disposition. Her magical power over nature is used in interesting ways (I'm particularly found of how versatile the pumpkins were), and while her power over water was underused, it still led to some scenes easy to imagine being very cinematic.

One of her companions, Hayden, was also a nice character, a typical sheriff type, a protector down to his bones, and a natural paladin.

However, I am sad to say these are the only characters I can speak well of. Not out of any dislike for the characters. There was no character I hated or anything. It was more that every other character did not feel fleshed out enough to really get to enjoy them.

Of the main cast, only Ariana (the protagonist) and Hayden (the love interest), felt (mostly) fleshed out. Her remaining two companions, Ellie and Sophie felt deserving of more focus.

Ellie was a former office worker with depression who killed herself by jumping out a window, and was reincarnated with the ability to turn into a crow. Yet, if I skipped the backstory revealed about her when she was introduced, I would have assumed she was just some emo high school girl who Ariana adopted. Which is a shame, because there was some great potential with her character, what with similar issues of mental health that Ariana suffered through. Combined with Ellie being the character with the least skill in combat for two thirds of the story, I feel an arc of them bonding and training would have done wonders, perhaps even forming a 'Daughter I never had/mother I always wanted' relationship.

Sophie... felt even less fleshed out. Thinking back to it, I can't recall if her age was ever stated, but she always gave the impression of a young girl, who after being tossed out (presumably getting a broken neck) by her father, was reincarnated with basic RPG magical abilities. Namely healing and shields. The entire time reading, I legitimately thought she was a child, and only when writing this review did I double check if it was confirmed or not. Maybe it's due to her cheerful personality, but the way she acted just felt like a young child. Perhaps she could have been focused on a bit to develop a found family relationship with Ariana.

Another recurring character who sadly wasn't focused on as much as he deserved was the 'Chosen Hero' Koichi. Instead of dying, he was summoned to the new world, and went on a quest to kill the demon lord. But early on, he encounters Ariana and begins to change his opinions on demons being evil. Only for a chapter or two later for him to be restrained while the church tries to execute Ariana, leading to some serious destruction. Immediately, he decides Ariana is super evil and announces he's going to kill her son, because obviously this was all her fault. This felt sudden and forced. Perhaps Ariana could have been showing more of this violent alternate personality thing she is revealed to have way later on, and have this be Koichi's reason for leaving, because he doesn't feel safe around her, and comes across his own answers. When he returns in the final chapters, Koichi is nothing more than a brat who's forgotten by the story the moment he loses the final battle. No feeling of satisfaction seeing him grow and change. And there was never a feeling of how powerful he was, since he did nothing in every fight he was in. It was hard to believe he was 'Chosen.'

All the antagonists suffer from similar issues. Every enemy is evil for the sake of being evil, striking at Ariana because they're racist, or hateful, or prideful, or some other reason.

I could be here all day talking about changes the author could have made to flesh out a lot of issues. But there's only one thing I truly hate in this story, and that's the ending. I really wanted to see some mother/son bonding time! It made me extremely frustrated that after everything the two went through, we don't get a single scene where she actually feels like his long-lost mother!

I'm running out of words, so I'll end with this. All in all, the plot is decent, and the story has fantastic bones, but the bones aren't fully stewed. Important details are added to the pot way too late and characters are left under-baked.